Time to fix that.
He’d made the decision to start righting his wrongs, and he’d started with Julie. He’d enjoyed the hell out of planning his Valentine surprise for her. The second wrong on his list to right had been Mike…but he’d gotten a little distracted from his goal when he’d seen Julie’s naked body and realized how very much he liked it.
Hell. He needed to get refocused. Forget about Julie.
Find a way to make amends with Mike. Yeah. That’s what he would do.
The twitter of Julie’s laughter suddenly sounded from just outside. Muffled voices came through the front door. Tommy stiffened and glanced at the clock. Before he could stop himself, he rushed over to the window and peered out.
Good thing he did, too. They were just in that awkward first-date moment of kiss-or-don’t-kiss.
Standing in front of each other. Close, but not too close. A bit of weird tension buzzing between them. Brody had his hands shoved in his pockets. Julie had her fingers twisted together in front of her.
There was no way in hell that man was going to kiss her.
Tommy flung the door open, causing them to jump apart.
Fighting a satisfied smirk, Tommy leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, crossing his ankles.
“Hey guys, have fun?”
Brody’s brows drew together then arched up. “Uh. Yeah.”
“Good.” Tommy sent him a tight smile. “Glad to hear it.”
Both of them stared at him, but he just cocked his head to the side and stared back, not moving.
“Brody,” Julie said. “I had a great time tonight. Thank you.”
“I did, too. I’d like to do it again.”
Tommy really had to work to keep a scowl from forming on his face, especially as Julie looked at him with an expression that clearly said, Get lost.
Not fucking happening.
When she saw he wasn’t going anywhere, she blew out a breath and glanced at Brody. “I’d really like that. Call me?”
“You can count on it.”
As she brushed by Tommy, she pursed her lips at him in a very Julie way of showing annoyance. He almost chuckled, but thought it best not to. Once she was safely inside, he stepped back, preparing to close the door as he held the other man’s gaze. “Later, Brody.”
The amusement in the man’s eyes took him aback. “Sure, Tommy.”
As Brody turned and headed back to his car, Tommy frowned. He really didn’t care for this guy.
Closing the door, he turned to find Julie with her hands on her hips. “What was that all about?”
“What?” he asked innocently, trying to keep his eyes on her face and not on the breasts the blue fabric was hugging, the way he wanted to.
She waved her hand toward the door. “That! You were the one who said you wanted me to continue with my social life as if you didn’t live here. That was not letting me continue like you didn’t live here.”
“Considering it’s only ten o’clock and you’re already home, I assumed the date didn’t go well.
Thought I’d help end it a little more smoothly.”
At least that sounded plausible enough. Right?
“The date did go well. I like him. We have a lot in common. And not that it’s any of your damn business, but I’m home early because I have to work in the morning. I can’t stay up all night and be able to do my job the next day. So the next time you decide to play big brother…just…don’t.”
Spinning, she marched down the hallway to her room, leaving Tommy with two very different emotions warring for dominance from her parting words.
First was her offhand comment that she couldn’t stay out all night. A direct slam at his tendency to do just that, and how he’d messed up because of it. He doubted she was even aware of how it had hit him. But damn, the difference between him and Julie couldn’t be clearer. And it seriously bothered him.
Which led to the second thing.
After that first kick of desire he’d felt for her days back, he’d reached over and ruffled her hair as he’d done countless times when they were kids. Then he’d made sure to throw around the word “sister” a lot. So he was the one who’d set this up. He did get that. But three times today she’d tossed “like a brother” at him—three times!—and each time his body had rebelled at the words coming out of her mouth.
If she said it again, he feared he was going to show her just exactly how much of a brother to her he wasn’t.
…
Staring at the ceiling, Julie lay in bed as she absently stroked Lucy, who’d started scratching at her door the moment she’d slammed it shut. When she had opened it back up, the dog immediately sprang forward and jumped on the bed. She welcomed the company.